Olive Harvest Time!!!!!!

  

 

 It's olive harvest time!  The Lutheran World Federation, located on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem, has olive groves on their property.  What do you do with a grove full of olive trees that are loaded with olives when harvest time rolls around?  You get all your friends to come and pick olives!  Many organizations volunteer their time to come pick the olives.......The Church of the Redeemer Lutheran Church, The Jerusalem Expat Network, and the U.S. Consulate General, are the ones I know that volunteer.  Dennis and I spent this morning working with the U.S. Consulate General to relieve quite a few trees of their loads!

A peaceful moment before the raking begins!

Lots of olives on this tree!

Lifting the tarp around the edges to consolidate the olives for transfer to the big bags.

 First the tarps get spread out under the trees.  Then, rake in hand, you begin to rake the trees and the olives fall to the tarps.  Thank heavens there are many low branches loaded with olives for us short people!  Dennis did the mid-level ones with the hand rake, and then put a long stick on his rake, and he got the high ones.  The kids helped a lot, some we kept busy by having them put the olives into buckets, others climbed into the trees, so as to help get the branches low enough for us to reach them.  It was a gorgeous day, the view of the city spectacular, and we all helped a good cause.  

He gets the high ones. . .

I'll get the low ones

One of our "best-est" helpers!

Time for the long handled rake!

Look closely, you can see the kiddo with the plaid shirt up in the tree!

monkeys in the trees!

The olives gathered at the harvest every year get made into olive oil.  Good olive oil!  The sale of the oil, helps to fund the Augusta Victoria Hospital, that happens to be across the street from the World Federation grounds.   Augusta Victoria is a Hospital and Church located on the north side of Mount of Olives. It was built in 1907-1910, and named after Empress Augusta Victoria, the wife of German Kaiser Wilhelm II. Today it is  an Arab Hospital.

http://www.avh.org/english.html   Please read about the Augusta Victoria Hospital by clicking on the link.  It has a very interesting history.

The view at the entrance to the Lutheran World Federation.  The Dome of the Rock is in the foreground.  It sits on the Temple Mount in the Old City.  Back a little way and to the left is the Abbey of the Dormition on Mount Zion, just outside the Zion Gate of the Old City. 

Entrance to the grounds of the Augusta Victoria Hospital.


Peace.